Conventionally, to use a medical image information system, application software, such as those of image processing and image viewing, need to be installed on each terminal, and settings such as security measures need to be performed. The management of such a stand-alone terminal comes with problems such as how to lighten the burden of maintenance, ensure security, and reduce costs. In recent years, the computing technology of servers has advanced; the thin-client technology, which allows application software to be executed intensively on servers, is expected to be one of effective steps taken to address the problems.
Meanwhile, in the case of the thin-client technology, images are displayed via a network, thereby raising concerns of restraints on display performance and function and the like for remote image interpretation. If this thin-client technology is applied to medical image information systems such as those for remote image interpretation, the systems would be likely to be affected by line bandwidths and delay. In particular, when medical images that are relatively large in transfer capacity are cine-displayed (or when each piece of slice information is sequentially image-displayed as if the images are moving pictures), the deterioration of the display performance and dropping frames may occur, affecting the operation by doctors of interpreting the images.
Conventional techniques have been proposed to solve the above problems by changing the size of medical images or by partially transferring the medical images. Moreover, to detect dropping frames, there is a technique by which a client is synchronized with a server to calculate a difference between a medical image received by the client and image information transmitted by the server.
However, to achieve accurate interpretation of images, it is necessary to stop a drop in the image display performance and to prevent the dropping of frames. Accordingly, one embodiment of the present invention is intended to solve the above problems, and to provide a medical image diagnosis information system that prevents a drop in the image display performance and the dropping of frames.